weekend #1

Now that Drew and I have gone a full weekend each with our date-off in full swing, I am happy to report that I am ahead, 2-0.  I met two very nice guys this weekend.  Not sure about 2nd dates with either, but I enjoyed meeting them and their company!
Stay tuned!

Date-off

So many of you know my good friend Drew from Kentucky.  Well, Drew and I are both "daters" but are currently not in any kind of serious relationships with anyone.  So we decided that to kick our dating up a notch, it would be fun to join one of the zillion dating sites that are out there and see who can go on the most dates.  After all, it is a numbers game, right?  The more people you meet the better chance you'll have to really click with one. We both joined match.com, put up legitimate profiles and let the games begin.  Now the best deal on match.com is a 6 month membership, and if you don't find your true love, they give you another 6 months for free.  So it basically costs you $90 for a full year, not bad.   One point per date, and to promote long lasting love, you get more points (two) for 2nd dates, three points for 3rd, etc.  The contest runs until our 6-month memberships expire or until one of us ends up in a long term relationship.  It's silly, but should be a lot of fun! Good luck, Drew!    

Sports are meant to be fun!

So as everyone knows by now, the Packers lost in a heart breaker yesterday. :(  I made a bet with one of my coworkers, Mike, who is an Arizona Cardinals fan that whoever won would get taken out to lunch by the loser and the loser would have to wear the jersey of the winner at said lunch.  So today I came in to my office to find a red Matt Leinart jersey slung over the back of my chair.  So being the good sport that I am, I congratulated Mike and his team and we've had a little back and forth all day.  We haven't decided when our lunch will be, but I will proudly wear the jersey while we dine.

Now, I was just talking to another coworker who said to me, "You know what, you are certainly handling this with a lot more grace and dignity than Mike ever would have had you won!"  I said, thanks and that he had surely been dishing it out today.  But it makes me think, I LOVE sports, have traveled all over the place to attend games, cheered on my team with such ferocity that I have no voice the next day, but the day I can't handle a loss with grace and dignity or more importantly, the day it stops being anything more than a FUN game, is the day I stop watching!! Sports are meant to be fun, they're not meant to throw people into funks for weeks/months/years after a loss.  They're meant to evoke fond memories of past glories and blind optimism that no matter how bad your team did this time around, next season could be your season!  So to the rest of the NFL playoff teams still in it, good luck.  Packers Super Bowl in 2011!!!

Tardiness

Went to hot yoga last night for a class that starts at 815 pm.  Now there is this lady, Patricia, who I'm pretty sure comes to class every day.  I either see her at the 630 or 815 class.  And inevitably, I'll be sitting in the room on my mat, getting ready and focusing and she'll come flying in at 814 (or 629) set up her mat in quite a frenzy, run back out to the locker room, get changed and come flying back in to the room usually a few minutes after class has started.  I'm in general a very punctual person and really don't understand chronic lateness.  Know how long it's going to take to get somewhere, add on 5 minutes just in case and be there on time.  Always seems simple to me. There are certainly circumstances where being late can't be avoided but you'd think for someone who comes to class EVERY DAY she'd figure out how to get there on time at least once in awhile.  Luckily the beauty of yoga is, they encourage letting go of all the frustrations and distractions around you.  Good thing Patricia doesn't attend a kickboxing class with me. :)

Happy New Year!

Well, what a decade! Now I've been reading a lot of news reports and recaps that say good riddance to the 2000s, especially 2009 but I think we should instead say thank you 2000s and 2009, you taught us a lot.  I was 19 when the 2000s started, in college, learning a lot and falling head over heels in love with a basketball team (we are still in a long-lasting relationship!)  Since then, I have graduated from college, gotten a job, gotten laid off from a job, moved to two different cities, one I liked and one that feels more like home than anywhere I've ever set foot, learned a thing or two and always had a ball.  

During this decade, our country has faced terrible atrocities, tough economic times and a long war, but this is not the worst we have faced or will ever face.   We are all still lucky to live in a country where we can wake up every day and feel optimistic that today, or any day, could be the start of something great.  I took two life-changing trips to the Dominican Republic that have made me realize that if living in this country, my biggest concern is whether I'm going to be able to get the newest iPod and not whether I might get to see a doctor at some point in the next six months no matter if I need it or not, I ought to count my blessings.

The fluidity of life has taken people away, some far too soon, and given us so many new little ones to watch grow up.  I've learned that people come into your life for a reason, some stick around forever, some relationships come and go, some get stronger, some fade away, and thanks to the online revolution of the decade, Facebook, sometimes you get to reconnect with people you never thought you would.   But I do know this, I've never been lonely a moment in my life and I hope that my presence in everyone's lives this past decade has been as important as theirs has been in mine.

So to those who say good riddance to the 2000s, let's instead look back at what we've learned, how we've grown and who we've had around us, and take that forward to make this next decade even better than the last.  Let's put smiles on our faces and as my ever-wise Ma always says: GET AFTER IT!!

Happy New Year!